by Lindores Cross Country | Feb 6, 2018 | News
Lindores Equestrian will officially become our new business trading name in 2018.
Lindores Cross Country has been our business trading name for 28 years – since Frances Black established the cross country course with Maggie Livingston back in 1989.
Back in 1989 Lindores Cross Country was the only central Scotland cross country training course and it received an incredible amount of coverage in the industry papers at the time.
Since 1989, Lindores Cross Country has grown and caters for third generation family horse riders, grass root riders, 2** eventers, happy hackers, campers, horse holiday makers and everything in between.
Lindores has grown over the years and with huge investment in the last 4 years the business name Lindores Cross Country no longer reflects the wider proposition available to the equestrian community.
So, it is with great excitement and pride we rename ourselves as Lindores Equestrian. Please stay connected with us for more and more updates from the team.
www.facebook.com/lindoresequestrian
www.instagram.com/lindoresequestrian
www.twitter.com/lindoresXC
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.lindoresxc.co.uk
Address: Lindores Equestrian Ltd, Braeside of Lindores, Newburgh, Fife, KY14 6HU
Telephone: 07736 044 058
by Lindores Cross Country | Feb 1, 2018 | Award
Lindores Equestrian were humbled to be nominated for the second year running Equestrian Business of the Year 2018 by HorseScotland.
The National Equestrian Awards recognise and reward the contribution of Scotland’s equestrian coaches, volunteers, performers, clubs, equine breeders and equestrian business community..
Lindores Equestrian have a huge number of clubs, coaches and performers who use our facilities and we know how deserving many of you are to be nominated. So if you know anyone deserving of a nomination please follow the link and put a big smile on their face.
The categories for 2018 are:
Club of the Year
Equestrian Business of the Year
Equestrian Employee of the Year
Equestrian Photo of the Year
Equestrian Writer of the Year
Equine Breeder of the Year
Owner of the Year – new for 2018
Participation Coach of the Year
Performance Coach of the Year
Performer of the Year
Volunteer of the Year
Young Peoples Coach of the Year
Youth Coach of the Year – new for 2018
Youth Performer of the Year – new for 2018
Youth Volunteer of the Year – new for 2018
Lifetime Achievement
Last year Lindores were absolutely honoured to have been a runner up in the ‘Equestrian Business of the Year’ award. To be nominated by our customers and to be recognised by horsescotland meant so much to us all of the team.
So we encourage all members of the equestrian community to get involved and nominate who you think has added value!
Who knows who will win at the Awards Ceremony in March at Airth Castle but we’re just delighted to be considered!
by Lindores Cross Country | Oct 11, 2017 | News
Colin Hamilton, DC of Glenrothes PC, looks back on a successful 2017.
As always, our Members Show brings a close to the spring/summer Pony Club season, and after a brief shower of rain as we were preparing for tack and turnout for our mini class, the sun or at least dry weather, was the order for the rest of the day.
Lindores Cross Country has now become our adopted home, facilitating our weekly rallies on a Thursday evening, Summer League competitions, Camp, and Members show. As our club has put the foundations down at Lindores we have worked closely with Anna and the rest of the Black family to develop a great relationship which works for both parties. We are currently planning to enter our fourth season at Lindores which we are very happy about.
After a winter of team jumping, indoor rally’s, quiz and the start of hunter trial season, eventually the clocks change providing enough daylight hours to commence the summer programme. We kick the season off with an on-foot rally for the kids and a parents meeting covering all the boring but essential information for the season ahead. Being a small club we alternate between flatwork and jumping each week with the odd specialist training added in for upcoming events.
It’s great to see all the members back together again and how they are so welcoming of any new members who have joined no matter the age group. There is a real buzz in the air as the chatter of new ponies and upcoming competitions echoes around the farm.
After a few weeks of rally’s, it is time for our first summer league. I am always impressed with how supportive our members are of each other even when there are lots of lovely rosettes to be won. The weather holds out for us and the kids do us proud, with their smart turnout and riding. Back to the rally’s and our thoughts are now turning to final preparations for camp.
Camp provides lots of positive experiences, but the one I am going to mention is how even the youngest attendees grow in independence during the week, so much so we normally receive comments from shocked parents about how their children have changed. Not often kids are speechless but this year at camp we had Louisa Milne Home as a guest speaker and I think they were so in awe of her we couldn’t get any questions for Louisa, thanks for finding their mute button and for inspiring dreams for the future.
The rest of the summer holidays were spent either at Area Qualifiers and Regional Champs for our more senior members, who all put in good performances in highly competitive environments, with the club bringing home rosettes every day in both competitions.
We also had a team at Combined Training, although with no team placing, we had some very good individual performances that were rewarded with placings.
Which brings us full circle to Members Show, there were some very closely fought classes with minimal marks between riders in tack and turnout and dressage, some very tight times in the Show Jumping with nice double clears and an extremely tough decision for our Working Hunter judge after some very confident riding.
A massive thanks to everyone involved in our club, who all come together and help support all that we do for our members. We are looking forward to another great season at Lindores in 2018.
For more information on Glenrothes Pony Club Click here.
by Lindores Cross Country | May 12, 2017 | Camps
Author: Equiteam Instructor Liz Daniels UKCC Level 2
Wobbleberries Camp Day Three – Event Day!
Day three is our final day of camp and it’s a busy day again for the campers. The day starts with a bacon and egg bap (thanks Lou – you rock) and of course endless cups of tea!
As this camp is for Wobbleberries who are aiming at BE80 we carried on our eventing camp theme and today our campers rode all three disciplines (a dressage test, show jumping course and cross country) in one day. Day three is about consolidating what has been learnt during camp and gaining extra confidence / self belief to then go and recreate it on their own.
After wolfing down breakfast I went out with some campers to walk the grid distances that were still out from yesterday, so that they can practice at home. After that it was down to the dressage field where I had a quiet half an hour with one lady who is dyslexic and struggles to learn her dressage tests.
I always love working with people, finding out what makes them tick and ways which I can maybe help a little. It doesn’t matter what someone’s own challenges are I’m a great believer that many roads lead to Rome and it’s just about finding out what works for the individual.
We soon had a plan in place of what we were going to do and how we were going to approach the dressage test riding together.
Dressage tests and show jumping…
We invited instructor Dossie Wang to judge the dressage tests and Lou did the writing. Its such a huge bonus having an actual dressage arena set out in a separate field for our use, and is so good for test practice. Each camper is allocated extra time so that Dossie could give extra feedback.
As the first couple of campers rode their dressage tests I built a show jumping course so that following their dressage they could come and pop around the show jumps, with the dreaded F word. For those of you unsure of the F word.. its fillers!
All of the campers jumped amazingly and proved that fillers are not as scary as some thought! What was really nice to see this morning was the new found confidence in both the campers and also in the horses. One camper had never jumped a course before today and went straight in and happily popped over an 85cm course like she had been doing it all of her life.
Three of the very inexperienced horses, (one had never jumped at all prior to camp), came in brimming with confidence and really wanted to do the job. The ground being so hard due to lack of rain at the moment has of course been a real consideration throughout camp and coupled with tired ponies everyone just jumped one round.
After 11 horses had jumped round I went to help the lovely lady with her dressage test. She did an absolutely brilliant job, I was super proud, and she bagged herself a lovely 65% test!
An afternoon of achievements…
After a super quick lunch it was time to climb up Lindores for my favourite office view and we were back up the hill for the cross country. Today I wanted to simulate course riding so after a warm up we walked the course discussing the varied fences and terrain and then each rider rode a course to suit the level they are currently riding at. Again Lindores Cross Country is so great for this as there is a big variety of fences.
One lady had a fall warming up cross country. As we all know this is something which happens, but it’s never nice for the rider (or instructor – believe it or not we dislike this as much as you!). She was soon back on her feet and dug really deep to carry on. This can often be the hardest part – getting back on after a fall and jumping the same fence again and then pushing yourself some more. The lady did absolutely brilliantly, rode amazingly and finished the session grinning from ear to ear having added many more achievements to her belt.
Everyone jumped brilliantly and some riders bagged the Lindores Boat in the water complex for the first time – lots more grins from horses and riders and a huge well done to you all.
After the last group walk back down the hill Lou and I had a mini de-brief about camp and we sat for 10 minutes in the glorious sunshine among the coconut smell of the gorse. Simply amazing! I always feel a mixture of emotions after the lessons have finished, so genuinely happy for people’s individual achievements, but sad that’s its almost over.
The final presentation…
Back at the hub of camp life (The Bothy) we did a final presentation, shared some big achievements, recounted a few highs and lows and of course thank our campers. We always ask our campers for feedback and ways of improving our camps in the future but once again we were totally humbled by comments and feedback – thank you so much. Watch first hand how our campers felt at the end of the experience here
This camp was dedicated Wobbleberries, inspired by Hannah Francis, and so Equiteam (Lou and I) and Lindores Cross Country will be donating a % of the camp profits to this fabulous cause.
As another camp has come to a close there are two tired but very happy camp hosts looking forward to an early night! A massive thank you to everyone who came to another brilliant camp and once again to the Black family at Lindores. Without this facility we would be unable to host anything like that in this area and I feel so very lucky to have it. We are always made to feel so welcome, nothing is ever too much trouble and I joke that Lou and I will be moving in soon!
For anyone thinking of hosting a camp I couldn’t recommend it enough. Thank you Anna and family – you guys are awesome.
Thanks for reading my blog
Liz
If you’re interested in attending an Equiteam Camp with Instructor Liz Daniels
If you’re interested in stable hire or training your 
horse at Lindores Cross Country
If you fancy a holiday with your horse
- Read about staying at Lindores Lodge and using all the equestrian facilities Liz mentioned at Lindores Lodge website
For Wobbleberries updates
by Lindores Cross Country | May 10, 2017 | Camps
Event: Wobbleberries Camp May 2017 – Day 2:
Author: Equiteam Instructor Liz Daniels UKCC Level 2
(Not sure where to start!!)
Last night we had a Lindores experience which we hadn’t previously encountered and it’s too good not to share!
Just before 11pm we got a phone call from a lovely camper to say that there was an issue with the spare toilet and it was inhabited by a calf who had escaped its pen, gone into the toilet and destroyed the contents in only a way a cow could! Luckily the calf is fine, needless to say the toilet is not and now getting a refurb!! Possibly the most unlikely event we could have predicted and another job for the Lindores team!
We arrived on day two and the campers are already smiling. Day two is usually my favourite day at camp as you see people achieve things they didn’t believe possible! To me it doesn’t matter if this is cantering in an open space for the first time, or jumping 1.15m, it’s all relative but there is nothing like seeing a genuine smile on someone’s face and it always makes me feel so lucky to have such an awesome job!
The morning lessons were grid work. For a couple of our riders this was the first time they had ever done grid work, but they fully embraced it! Grid work is so educational for both horses and riders and something we always do at camp. Alongside the grid work we looked at how to jump on an angle and the striding between fences – which everyone nailed!
Another awesome thing I see at camp is the development of horses and riders and I’m a great believer that horses go away and process things overnight and come back the next day with a completely different understanding.
This was certainly true for a number of the less experienced horses who had cantered down the poles yesterday unsure and struggling to consistently make the distances, where as today they were brimming with confidence, ears pricked, taking their riders through the poles and ready for the next challenge.
All of the horses and riders jumped brilliantly, with many more getting PB’s, everyone improving and growing with confidence. Such an awesome job, well done all!
A quick bite to eat at lunchtime (and no exercise session today the legs are just a touch stiff!) before heading up the hill for the cross country.
I always walk up to the top of the hill (instead of drive). This is for two reasons.. Firstly I can justify eating more of LouBirds amazing tiffin(!) and secondly because as you get to the top and look left the view is breathtaking. I never tire of seeing it and it’s always worth the climb.
Many of our horse and rider partnerships are new to cross country and they all did brilliantly. On the XC there are a huge range of fences from 40cm upwards and after a warm up I always try and send the riders out to string a few fences together. From an instructors point of view it’s a great course as you can link lots of fences together whilst still being able to see the riders!
Many campers jumped the ski jump for the first time as well as the new Danny MacAskill keyhole fence, which has become the ‘must jump’ fence for 2017! There were a couple of ‘digging deep’ moments, but some massive steps made!
A few of the riders were concerned that their horses were feeling tired before they went XC, although they definitely all perked up when they were up there and jumped fabulously. Many of our Wobbleberries are now realising their aim of a BE80 is very achievable and firmly insight.
As a training facility Lindores is great, one horse had an ‘issue’ with ditches and it’s an ideal place to address this. After sessions finished the lovely walk down the hill means that the horses are nicely cooled down by the time they get back to the stables.
As lots of happy faces congregated in the bothy, shared stories, experiences and write their days highlights on the ‘achievement board’ Lou had another amazing meal prepared.
During dinner one of our lovely campers set up a slide show of the achievements she had captured in between her own lessons. I really enjoy the fact that the campers are all so supportive of each other and this really is what makes camp so fab (of course I’m biased!)!
After dinner we welcomed Julia Craig to chat about saddle fitting. As always Julia was enthusiastic and informative and our campers learnt lots about different kids of saddles as well as tack fitting. Big thank you to Julia for giving up her time to chat to us.
Another long but very enjoyable day at Lindores and we are all looking forward to day three!
More to follow tomorrow,
Liz
Equiteam Confidence Camps Facebook page
Julia Craig Saddle Fitter
Danny MacAskill Wee Day Out – Behind the scenes of Hay Bale Film Footage
Lindores Cross Country – Horse Holidays and Camp venue
Lindores Lodge – Luxury self catering accommodation in Fife, Scotland
